


Like the Grace of God

by GloriaGilbertPatch



Category: The Mindy Project
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-30
Updated: 2014-05-30
Packaged: 2018-01-27 03:10:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1712777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GloriaGilbertPatch/pseuds/GloriaGilbertPatch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mindy goes to Mass with Danny.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like the Grace of God

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't perfect, but I've really been wanting to contribute.

“Wait, so this is going to be in English, not Latin?” Mindy asked, sounding curiously disappointed.

“Yeah. I mean, we could go to a Latin Mass if you really wanted, but you’re new at this so we should start with something you understand, right?”

“Danny, I’ve told you I gave the salutatory address at Princeton. I’m, like, fluent in Latin. It would’ve given me a chance to practice.”

“Fine… _I_ like it better in English because I don’t know all the responses in Latin. Not all of us went to fancy prep schools with Latin clubs and botanical gardens and marble floors and – ”

“Okay, there’s a long distance between a Latin club and marble floors, but this is fine. English is fine.”

“I want it to be a good experience for you, Min.”

“It doesn’t need to be in the weird foreign language that I randomly enjoy to be a good experience. This is a part of who you are, and I want to know what it’s like.” She leaned toward him and placed a soft kiss on the side of his neck. “Don’t stress about it, okay? This is for you.” Danny nodded a little, focusing the surprisingly demure dress she wore, the encouraging smile on her face, and most of all the earnest warmth in her eyes. Maybe she wasn’t changing for him, per se, but she was doing _this_ for him, and she really seemed happy about it.

“Okay,” he agreed softly, and they walked through the door. Danny reflexively dipped his fingers in the holy water and made the sign of the cross as Mindy watched, fascinated.

“Danny, what did you just do?” He shrugged, suddenly a little self-conscious.

“It’s holy water. You touch it with your right hand and cross yourself when you enter the church.” He considered for a moment and then continued, “Right hand, open hand, touch your forehead, then your breastbone, then your left shoulder, then your right shoulder.” She copied him, a little awkwardly, but she was trying, and that was enough to make his heart swell so much he had to look away.

He led her further into the church, and when they reached his pew he thought about it for a moment and was slower when he knelt and crossed himself, so that she’d have time to observe. This time she was ready, and her imitation was a little less awkward as he knelt at the pew and gestured for her to kneel beside him.

“There’s a lot of standing up, sitting down, and kneeling,” he whispered to her as they waited, “so just do what I do. And every time the priest says, ‘in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,’ you cross yourself. Okay?” Mindy nodded.

“This is very participatory,” she noted. Danny shrugged.

“It’s about community,” was all he said.

They knelt in silence for a few moments, Danny reflecting on all the times in the past week that he failed to live up to his promises, and Mindy…actually, he didn’t know what Mindy was thinking about. Probably what a nutjob her boyfriend was. It must have seemed a little silly to her, a grown man kneeling before an altar, so different from whatever brand of Lutheranism Casey had practiced.

“In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” Father’s voice cut through the quietness of the room, and Danny jumped to his feet, Mindy half a second behind him.

“The grace and peace of God our Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”

“And also with your spirit,” Danny murmured, a part of him still rebelling against the new translation, but not enough to be out of sync with the rest of the parishioners. Mindy said nothing – he should have printed her out a list of responses beforehand – but she watched, her face covered in a look of intense concentration that Danny recognized from every time he had seen her try really hard to understand a situation and commit it perfectly to memory.

After that, he stopped worrying as much. Maybe she wouldn’t know exactly what she was doing; maybe she would feel a little out-of-place, but she had this. He had never seen that look on her face followed by anything other than careful, precise perfection. She wasn’t like Reed – Danny could always see the effort – but she wasn’t like him, either. She didn’t get flustered or angry over serious things, real things; she just switched into work mode and got them done. And as she carefully copied his movements, right down to the bowing of her head during the Nicene Creed, blending in so perfectly it was as if she had been coming since she was a little girl, he knew that there was nothing left he wouldn’t do for her.

 

“I liked it, Danny,” she said sweetly, rubbing her thumb over his knuckle as they walked out into the street. “It felt…old. Now I get why you couldn’t handle Casey’s church, though.” He chuckled a little.

“To be fair, there are some Catholic services that are more lively, but I like this better. It’s quiet, contemplative. Makes me think about who I am, makes me want to be a better man. You know…be worthy.” Mindy frowned.

“But isn’t that the whole point, that none of us are worthy but God loves us even though we’re all horrible sinners?” Danny flushed at her casual correction of him, the easy repetition of something that he _knew_.

“Well, yeah, but…”

“Danny, it’s great to want to be a better man, to try your best to do right by those you love. But you know we love you anyway, right? You don’t have to be anything but what you already are.” She smiled slightly. “That goes for people as well as God.”

He didn’t know what to say. Funny, how when he was dictating her letter to Cliff back on the plane – it felt like another lifetime – it was so easy to be eloquent, but now, when it counted, when he had to speak for himself to the woman he loved, this woman whose love he really did value like God’s grace, it was nigh on impossible.

“Danny?” came Mindy’s curious voice after a few moments of his silence.

“Hmm?”

“I could do that again, you know. I’d want to learn the words. And I’m not going to convert. But I enjoyed the service, and I could go with you, sometimes, if that’s something you’d like.”

“Sure,” he managed, his arm tightening around her waist. “Next time we can go to a Latin one, if you want. I could learn the responses. Hey, maybe you could help me.” She stopped walking for a moment to kiss him gently on his neck, her hand heavy on his hip.

“I love you. In case I don’t say it enough.”

“I don’t think I could ever hear it enough…but I know you do. And I love you.”

They walked the rest of the way back to his building in comfortable silence.


End file.
